Door opening and closing device



a. c. CIRAC.

DOOR OPENING. AND CLOSING DEVICE.

APPLICATION FILED NOV. .4, 1920.

1,394,278. Patented Oct. 18; 1921.

1 1- nuummummmmnmmugmm 7/ 9% v Z P "2 o l5 l6 9 I 25 25 I 9 //i% 5 Site 25 a W INVENTOR. EEUREE C. [IHAE L E] ATTORNEY.

UNITED STATES GEORGE C. OIRAC, OF FALLON, NEVADA.

DOOR OPENING AND CLOSING DEVICE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Oct. 18, 1921.

Application filed November 4, 1920. Serial No. 421,705.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, GEORGE C. CIRAC, acitizen of the United States, and resident of Fallon, county of Churchill, State of Nevada, have invented a new and useful Door Opening and Closing Device, of which thefollowing is a specification.

The present invention relates in general to a door opening and closing device and has reference more particularly to a manually operated device which is adapted to be mounted in association with a door for opening and closing the same, and further, is a convenient means for locking the door closed when occasion arises.

The invention in its preferred form is especially applicable to the doors of ice boxes and other like compartments which employ swinging doors.

The primary object of the invention is to provide a a simple and inexpensive device which may be conveniently applied to the door with which it is to'be used and provide an eiiicient equipment for effecting an easy opening and closing of the door and which may also be, as above stated, used as a means of locking the door closed.

As heretofore practised in the case of ice boxes and other like instances where a swinging door is used, some device must be employed to efiect a tight closure of the door to maintain the desired temperature. Most ofthese heretofore employed devices include a very simple latch which is brought into use after the door has been pushed to. In some instances these devices will push the door practically closed and in other instances they are used merely to hold the door closed after it has been pushed as far as is possible manually. One of the important features of the present invention resides in combining in a single construction all of the functions of these heretofore known devices and to go further and accomplish results which have not been attempted by these other devices; for instance, one of the advantages of the present invention resides in providing means whereby the door may be tightly closed by a thrust or push on the handle of the device, and to use the same handle to impart a pull on the door to open the same. As is common in most refrigerator doors, the jamb is very thick and usually beveled for at least a portion of its thickness. This sometimes causes the door to stick. The increased effective leverage of the lever used in connection with the present device will make it easy to open the door regardless of whether it sticks slightly, and then again, the weight of the door will not work a hardship on the one having to open and close the door, as the device will at least get the door started in moving to open position, and in closing, when the door has been moved to a position where it may be acted upon by the device, will effect an easy and sure tight closure.

That form of the invention which has been selected for purposes of illustration is shown on the accompanying drawing, in

which Figure 1 is a view of a portion of an ice box or the like including the door therefor and with perspective view of the device as applied-thereto; Fig. 2 is a top plan view of the device as applied, showing the ice box or the like in section and with the device acting upon the door to open the same; Fig. 3 is a similar view showing the device acting upon the door to close the same; Fig. 4 is a detail view showing the relative position of the handle when swung out of the way to an inactive position; Fig. 5 is a detail view of one of the shims or split washers which may serve as a means to build up the space between the mounting for the lever to accommodate the device to doors of different thicknesses and Fig. 6 is a perspective view of the mounting for the lever.

Referring now to the drawings in detail and in so far as concerns the present illustrative embodiment, A represents the box like wall of a refrigerator or the like and B the door therefor. The device preferably comprises as an important element a lever (5) which is preferably shaped or bent as shown and of a relatively long length. The mounting end for the lever is bent as at (6) to offset the lever, the purpose of which will be presently described. From the short inwardly presented bend (7 the lever is again bent to provide a mounting end (8). To produce the short parallel section (9) of the lever the material is preferably bent upon itself at the mounting end (8) so that the end thereof will extend parallel with the part (5) of the lever but spaced therefrom by the bent short section(7). The mounting end will be provided with an opening through whi h the pintle (10) of the hinge eye (11) will pass. This pintle should be provided with a rounded or rivet head (12) so that the lever will be permanently fixed thereto and can not be ordinarily removed.

To accommodate the lever to doors of different thicknesses a number of shims or split washers (13) may be used to fill up the space between the mounting end of the lever and the shoulder (14) at the inner end of the pintle (10).

It will be noted that the lever in being mounted in this manner will be free to revolve on the pintle (10) and to effect still another free movement of the lever the hinge eye (11) which carries the pintle (10) is free to swing relative to the attaching plate (15) by means of the bolt (16) which connects the eye thereto.

The attaching plate (15) may be bifurcated as shown and secured to the wall A by bolts or the like (17) which will pass through the wall A and engage by nuts (18) on the inside of the cooling box or the like. The nuts (18) may be so fixed as to prevent the bolts (17) from being taken out or, it

' desired, the headed ends of the bolts (17) may be round and counter-sunk in the attaching plate. Any construction will sutlice so long as it will prevent removal of the attaching plate for purposes of theft.

Fixed to the door adjacent the attaching plate (15) and its associated parts is a hand grip (19-). This hand grip also comprises a bracket which cooperates with the lever (5) in opening and closing the door as well as to lock the same closed. The bracket consists of two attaching ends (20) and (21) which are bifurcated like the attaching plate (15) and fixed to the door in the same manner as the plate (15). The bracket is bent outwardly from the end (21) to produce a shelf-like section (22), then upwardly to produce an upturned end (23) for the shelf-like section (22) and then bent upon itself and presented downwardly to produce a perpendicular face (24C) and then curved inwardly toward the door where it terminates in the end (20).

Bolted to the door beyond the bracket (19) is a shelf-like catch (25) having an upturned end (26) which is adapted to confine the end of the lever on the catch.

7 It will be noticed when the door is closed and it is desired to maintain the same in such position by the lever (5), the two paral lel sections of the lever will be confined between the end (21) of the bracket and the upturned end (23). (See Fig. 1). This will maintain the lever in a position to cooperate with the bracket (19) in holding the door closed. When it is desired to open the door the free end of the lever may be swung up and clear of the upturned end (26) andthen brought back to substantially horizontal position and pulled outwardly from the door. The hinge produced by the swivel mounting of the eye (11) to the plate (15) will enable this movement of the leverto be realized. Itwill then follow that the short parallel section (9) will bear against the inner face or the upturned end (23) of the bracket (19) which will exert a thrust to the door in a direction to open the same. When the door is open to a certain extent (see, for instance, Fig. 2) the end of the short parallel section (9) will become disengaged from the bracket, but by this time the door has been swung outwardly clear from its jamb so that it will bean easy matter for the person desiring access to the cooler to grasp the bracket (19) and swing the door entirely open. I

In closing the door the bracket (19) may be grasped and the door pushed toward a closing position. When it has assumed a position relative to the jamb as shown in Fig. 3, the lever (5) may again be brought into use and the short section (9) presented against the end (21) of the bracket and with the lever held .above the end (23) whereupon push on the end of the lever will impart the desired push to the door and it may be tightly closed. when the door is closed the lever may be dropped be hindv the upturned end (24-) and with its free end behind the upwardly presented part (26) of the catch (25) (see Fig. 1).

In instances where the lever is used in frequently, or it for any other reason it is desired to move the same to inactive position out of the way, it may be moved and caused to overlay the plate (15) as best shown in Fig. 4. V

Should the device be used'on freight car doors or any other instances wherein it is desirable to seal or look the door closed, an opening maybe ma'de inthe free end of the lever in a location where it will register with an opening in the upturned end (26) of the catch (25) and a padlock or seal or any other locking device may be passed through these registered openings and thus lock the lever to the catch.

I claim:

1. In a device of the characterdescribed, a lever [adapted to be mounted adjacent a door to be opened and closed, a bracket adapted to be mounted to the door, said lever embodying in its construction a pair of spaced parallel sections adapted to assume a position within an upwardly presented end on the bracket, said lever adapted to be swung to and from the door with oneof the said parallel sections bearing against the door for closing the same and adaptedto impart a pull on the bracket to open the door.

2. In a device of the character described, a lever having a mounting permitting the same to be mounted adjacent a door to be opened and closed with the said lever capable of being moved to various horizontal and vertical angular positions relative to the door, a bracket embodying in its construcizo tion a horizontal shelf-like section having an upturned end, said lever including a pair of spaced parallel sections adapted to engage the bracket Within said upturned end, one of said sections adapted to bear against the inner face of said upturned end when the lever is moved away from the door and adapted to further engage the bracket to close the door when the lever ismoved toward the door, and a catch upon the door adapted to maintain the lever Within the bracket to hold the door closed.

3. In a device of the character described and as set forth in claim 2, and in combination with means for locking the lever to the 15 said catch.

4:. In a device of the character described and as set forth in claim 3, and in Which the lever is fixed to its mounting With means for permitting the lever to be moved verti- 20 cally of its mounting as Well as swung to and from thereof.

5. In a device of the character described and .as set forth in claim 2, and in which the mounting for the lever comprises a hinged 25 pintle with the lever free to rotate on said pintle.

GEORGE O. CIRAC. 

